"Many cases were reported from State-controled commercial banks and rural cooperatives," he said. In fact, 55 of the 113 cases in 2006 involved State-controled commercial banks, with 29 related to rural cooperatives.

Some typical cases listed by the CBRC include:

ICBC's Hubei branch: Former general manager of its information and science department, Wu Weigang, accepted 375,000 yuan ($48,000) in bribes to clear the branch's equipment purchase and other projects between January 2002 and August 2004. Wu was sentenced to six years in prison last year.

ABC's Shanghai branch: The former head of its security division, Liu Gang, took 840,000 yuan ($107,600) in bribes from three companies to clear the purchase of security products and bidding for equipment maintenance from them from November 2003 and December 2005. He was sentenced to 13 years in jail in October 2006.

BOC's Hainan branch: Former vice-president of the branch Qin Zhixin accepted bribes worth more than 13 million yuan ($1.67 million) from 1992 and 2005 to sanction bad loans, and to develop property projects with some firms. He could neither account for more than 20 million yuan ($2.56 million) of his personal assets. Qin was handed down a death sentence, suspened for two years, last year.

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